Affection
by hollywooddove
Summary: Billy learns secrets are not healthy when two are in love.
1. Chapter 1

A corpse is a heavy, clumsy item. Try handling one yourself, if you are of the nerve to touch the cold dead flesh. Morticians will tell of how unappealing the entire activity truly is. The arms do whatever, swinging and swaying, until the stiffness sets in. After that, it's no better lugging around something akin to a soft, weighty log. It's better to deal with the living; at least most of the time.

A corpse is expected to be found in some locations. No one is shocked to find one laying around in a mortuary, or buried in a grave, or strewn about on the fields of war. Death is perfectly at home in those instances, and a few more. However, death is out of place nearly everywhere else. A body wrapped in duct taped plastic behind a faux panel of a wall, for example, is not perceived as normal. That would be a real shocker, unless you owned the wall and had placed the bodies inside. To anyone else, it would be the obvious scream fest loaded down with shock and horror. Nevertheless, the young beautiful woman who was, only three days ago, full of life and dreams was indeed bundled so insidiously as just described. Her make shift tomb behind the wall was filled with other young and beautiful woman previously, very lively.

The plastic within which Sarah Benherd was enshrouded was semi-transparent and not yet coated with dust as the others were. Her eyes were closed as well as her thin, flat line of a mouth. Those foggy features could be made out through the concealment. All other features were murky at best beneath the overlapping layers. Lighting in the cellar where the shabby tomb resided was insufficient for good viewing the body, adding mystery wherein the plastic wrappings failed.

"Pretty butterfly. When you come back out, you will be a beautiful butterfly, transformed in the most wonderful way," spoke a young blond female with fiery red lips.

She snapped a strip of tape away from the side of the death head and opened the face to the air, and then carefully caressed the side of the face, "So lovely. So young. So beautiful. But just you wait and see, my darling, what you become."

The front door of the home slammed shut and echoed through the house. The young blond asked, "Billy? Is that you?" She knew it was him, but this was a convention he expected.

"Yes, it's me," he called.

Quickly she closed the face back up and tucked the corpse back into the wall and sealed the panel thereof. She spun around quickly and smiled brightly, as if she were a professional hostess, and dashed up the stairway. Ever so quietly, yet astoundingly fast, she closed the cellar door behind her. She met Billy in the hall beyond the living room; and she never missed a beat. Her arms wrapped around him and she planted a long kiss on his cheek, "Oh, I am so glad you are home."

Billy smiled, "I'm glad to be home." He removed his coat and hung it, "How have you been today?"

"Oh," she made a sideways frown and fidgeted a bit, "Bored mainly. Nothing much on television during the day. Nothing but quiet here."

"Bored?"

"Just a little. But you're home now, so I know that part of the day is over."

"I wouldn't be too sure. I'm bushed. I just want to sit back and watch that television with nothing on it."

The young woman trapped Billy with a tight embrace as he tried to step by her. A newborn baby reciting the entire Iliad after the doctor smacks its behind would make more logic than to think of the young woman being in honest love. However, she was, regardless of her very recent and villainous activities in the cellar, deeply in love with Billy. The love, too, was nothing skewed. It was as pure and humble as any love of which the tribe of humanity has ever known.

"Billy, let's go out tonight. I'm hungry," she pleaded childishly while burying her head in his chest. Shuffling dead bodies around can create quite an appetite.

Billy laughed one of those 'you've got to be kidding me, but you know I can't turn you down' laughs that all people, who when also truly in love, surrender with. "Okay. I'm hungry too."

He was rewarded with a peck on the cheek and the young woman bounced down the hallway to the front door, "Great, because I have the perfect place in mind."

"Oh, you do?"

"Yes," she said, while the other beautiful women inside the cellar wall slept the dreamless sleep. "Let's go to 'The Spaghetti Spoon.'"

Billy nodded and followed her. The closed doorway to the cellar must traveled by to exit the small house, and Billy was doing just that, when he stopped and wrinkled his nose, "What's that smell?"

"Smell?" she asked, dragging a couple of whiffs into her nostrils, "I don't smell anything."

Billy inhaled again, "Yes, a horrible odor. Does the trash need taking out?" He walked into the adjacent kitchen and dipped his head closely to the garbage can, "Ew, that's it." He raised the lid, "Rotting potatoes. I will take this bag out when we get back."

She looked over into the garbage receptacle with him, "Well, what-a-ya-know. Never can tell what kind of stuff is hiding around." In her mind, the secrets of the cellar began to tumble out of their holds and fall behind her eyes, rolling down the back of her throat, and over her tongue. Her mouth begged to be opened so she could further spill the delicious words, but instead she caught them by jamming her tongue between her teeth. Now was too soon.

They were only half steps from traversing the exit way of the home when a thump, a lowly muffled bump, of a noise issued from behind within the house. Billy easily grasped his girlfriend by the elbow and asked, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" she pleasantly asked.

"There was some sort of thud in the house. Sounds like it may have came from the cellar."

The young woman poised the stance of an advisor, as that of a person with the sure knowledge to fill in the gaps of a puzzling and perplexing problem. "You know, I think we have mice."

"Mice in the cellar?"

"Mice in the house in general. I don't know about the cellar exactly. I haven't been down there." No hesitation was in the lie she delivered; no sign of any attempt to cover up a hidden affair was enunciated from her. She held the grace of a practiced liar, from whom the truth was packaged all the same. His trust was desired from her, nonetheless; but for the present time trust was to be on her terms. After all, this wasn't the first lie she had ever told him for his own protection.

"Mice? Really?" he asked.

"I'll set out some traps."

"I could call an exterminator."

"Don't be silly. They are too expensive, and they will only do what I will do."

"I will set them out," he said.

"Suit yourself."

They exited the smallest home on the street, which rested on the smallest lot, and anchored the corner of the intersection. It begged no attention, red bricked and white shuttered. The tiny lot of land was well manicured, and also never gained a first glance by the overwhelming majority of people who passed by it daily. The home simply blended in with normality like a single tree folds into the forest. Billy's automobile was of a plain and ordinary sort, too. A Honda, of some make and model, not very old nor new. Everything about the couple and their trappings seemed perfectly common.

Billy opened the door for the young lady, "To 'The Spaghetti Spoon' then."

"I want-a big meat-a ball-a," she punned horribly.

Billy laughed and said, "I don't know what I ever did right to deserve you."

"Fate, it's all fate. Isn't that what love is all about?"

"I guess you can see it that way."

"There is no guessing. It's fate."

She sat in the passenger seat, and before Billy closed the door behind her he said, "I just hope whatever I'm doing right, I continue to do right."

Sternly she said, "You just have to remember one thing."

"What's that?"

"Don't ever make me angry," and instantly a devilish and playful grin came over her face.

Billy smiled and chuckled, "I don't think you have to worry about that. I've been afraid of you since we first met."

She patted his arm, "Good for you then. Everything should work out just fine."

He closed the passenger door of the Honda as the sunlight dimmed away. The love struck couple rode out of the driveway and down the street, leaving the ordinary house behind temporarily.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh Billy, you have got to try one of these." The young female's eyes were aglow with delight as she balanced a swirl of steaming noodles dripping with cheese on the end of her fork.

Billy opened his mouth like a baby bird. She inserted the food gently and slid the fork back away empty. Billy closed his eyes and smiled as he chewed, "Mmmmm."

Once "The Spaghetti Spoon" had been a video store, which had lost it's business to the oncoming surge of mail order video disks, and the building had sat vacant for eight long years until Rick Jessup signed a lease and converted it into an Italian eatery. Before the video store it had been a laundry mat, and before that an annex to a hardware store during the Christmas months, and before that even an empty lot. Unknown to Billy as he took his bite, "The Italian Spoon" would only be open for three more years, because Rick would have a massive heart attack on a cold November morning while stepping out the front door on his way to the eatery; and that would be that.

Business was good on this night, tables were filled, and Rick was happy. So was Billy and his young lady in love. It was a simple moment in time for each of them, making it the very best of happiness for it was both spontaneous and effortless.

The young woman's cheeks budded with rosy flair as she smiled, "That's good stuff, isn't it?"

"Oh my gosh yes," Billy mumbled, still savoring bite.

Billy washed the last of the nibble down with some water, emptying his glass, which he sat on the edge of the table for it to be noticed as the waitress tended the many tables on this busy night. When he looked back at the beauty seated across from him, he could see she was quite distracted in her own thoughts. He asked, "What are you thinking."

She brought her attention to him as though someone had clapped their hands in her face loudly; and she smiled bright and glowingly, "Nothing. I don't know. Nothing."

"It certainly looked like something. Are you sure there's nothing troubling you?"

"What could be troubling me? No. It was nothing. Maybe just a little tired."

"Okay," Billy said as he saw the waitress approaching with the water pitcher. "I guess a girl is entitled to her secrets."

"Secrets? Oh yes, you know me. I'm just a woman filled with all sorts of hidden little secrets," she laughed.

"Just like a woman," Billy agreed.

"I think," the young woman leaned in over the table, romantically gazing into Billy's eyes, "you will find I am unlike any woman you will ever meet again."

Time seemed to stop for Billy at that moment. The sounds of the Italian eatery faded away, and he could sense his heart had also been frozen at that instance. Every fiber of his being registered that if is his heart were to beat just once more, it would be only a gift from her. She owned him, and for the first time the profound impact of that had hammered him through and through. His heart did beat again, and the halted moment re-connected with all of time, and the buzz and swirl of the many activities inside the eatery almost overwhelmed him. He wanted to offer penance for being so inadequate and so undeserving to be in her company.

A waitress interrupted by taking the glass from the table. She was young, and stunningly pretty. It would have been almost incredulous for anyone, upon laying vision on her for the first time, to deny making full note of it. Billy, to the fault of his kind in general, made obvious notice of it; perhaps too obvious. The waitress did not flaunt her gift, nevertheless. She graced them with a smile and refilled the glass, and asked if there was anything else she could serve them.

Billy made that tremendous mistake almost all young dull witted and unseasoned men do. He struck up conversation with her. "I haven't seen you here before."

"Really, I've been here for a couple of months."

"Wow, how could I have missed you," which was strike two for Billy as his date kept a harsh score.

"Yep, a couple of months," the waitress swept a dark strand of hair from her face, "now, is there anything else I can get for you two?" The server had turned her bubbly smile, wisely, to the young female companion of Billy's.

The seated blonde's smile was all but genuine, tinted with shades of sarcasm and venom, "No, thank you."

Billy maintained his ignorant, boyish grin, "No, nothing for me either."

The waitress left their table, continuing her rounds, and Billy's date said, "Wasn't she just ducky."

Billy replied, "What? Do you know her?"

"I should say not."

Billy was confused, "Did she do something wrong? Did I miss something?"

"I don't think you missed a thing," she took a drink, brooding all the while.

"What? I think she did an okay job."

"Well I don't like her."

"You don't even know her."

The words, "Oh, but I bet you would like to," almost jumped from her mouth. Instead she sat quietly and sneered at Billy.

Billy's eyes lit up, "Oh, you're jealous," and he laughed.

"I am not. Do you think she has something I need to be jealous of?"

"I'm not the one pitching a tantrum about it." Billy could see these sorts of statements were repairing nothing, and he said, "You know, there's not a girl out there I would even consider over you."

The young woman now felt somewhat embarrassed and looked away, "So you say."

"It's true, look at me." He reached across the table and took her hands, "I mean it, with all of my heart."

"Honest?"

"Would I lie to you?" he asked.

A lie, she thought, is many things. He did not deny his brief want of flirtation with the waitress, this much was true; but he made no apologies either. She believed what he said, and that was the bottom dollar, and she knew it. She knew she could trust in those words, despite the secrets of his heart. Of course she had a bank of secrets all her own, locked securely away for now. Should this tender moment be the time to dispatch that lock and reveal them to him? No. She almost laughed at the notion. Certainly not here and absolutely not now.

She told him, "Tomorrow morning I have to go into town."

"Want me to go with you?" Billy asked.

"No, just a few errands to run. Nothing fun. I shouldn't be gone for more than a couple of hours."

"Okay then. I'll try to survive while you're not there."

She smiled again, "I know it will be hard."

"Oh yes. It can be tricky."

The rest of the dinner, as well as the afternoon, went off without a hitch. The waitress never had opportunity to visit their table again before the end of their meal. Billy had attempted to leave a tip on the table for the server, but the young woman insisted she would do so instead while Billy paid the ticket; it was, in her words, the least she could do after the jealous episode she had demonstrated. Billy agreed silently with a nod and a smile. The beautiful young blond waited for Billy to leave the table and she dropped two pennies in her water glass.

Julie Monroe was the name of the young, dark haired waitress who had waited on Billy and his date. To be exact, she was only nineteen years old. Her father had wanted to name her Lisa before she was born, but when he held her for the first time, he said Julie, and it had stuck. A compromise was made by officially giving her the name of Julianne Lisa Monroe, and of his three daughter's she was his favorite. She was by far the most beautiful of the three, but this was not the reason for his favoritism. There was something inexplicable in her spirit which had captured Mr. Monroe's heart. Surely, he would tell the three girls he loved them equally, and his mind would often shame him for knowing a special location for love was preserved just for Julianne.

Mr. Monroe's sorrow and grief would smother him for the rest of his life when he found out Julie's reason for never making it home that night. While crossing the street on the walk to her automobile she was taken down by a drunk driver. Forty eight dollars and two cents were returned to Mr. Monroe by the medical examiner along with all she possessed on her person that night.

The plain and ordinary smallest house at the end of the street sat quietly through the night, and inside it Billy and his lovely blond companion slept. His sleep was typical with tossing and turning, while hers was, as normal, solid and peaceful. She wore a slight smile on her vivid lips, knowing deeply all things that night had gone her way.


	3. Chapter 3

Saturday morning rolled in with a spotless sky and a gentle summer breeze. Billy cracked his eyes open as the sunlight slid over his face. He noticed his young blond companion was not in bed, and he smelled coffee. After dressing he found her in the kitchen, finishing a cup of the coffee, ready for her run of errands into town. He commented, "Making an early start of it I see."

"I hope that's alright," she said.

"Oh, yeah," he yawned. "Sure."

She stood from the table, sat her cup in the sink, and kissed Billy on the cheek, "I will be back in a couple of hours." Billy poured a cup of coffee for himself as she walked out the front door. She sat in the Honda and started the engine. Pulling the sun visor down, she said gleefully, "This will be the day, Billy, that we find out if you truly love me or not." She backed the car out of the driveway and scooted up the street.

Billy sat at the table with the coffee still in hand, steam swirling up from it like a cobra charmed. He could hear the car leave the driveway and head away, and his peaceful countenance dissolved into a solemn sigh. His left finger tips began to tap on the table top for indecisive measure; it was the posture of a man perplexed. He seemed to shrink in the room, and the clarity of his surroundings blurred. Those left fingertips now held his forehead, stilted by the elbow to the table. He took another long sip of coffee as storms of worry waged war behind his eyes. He could not come to a conclusion on the future of his relationship with the lovely young blond haired woman.

Everything had been so clear before the previous night. Now he had endured a true and lasting moment of love, and the rug of security had been yanked from beneath his world. He did not have the time to mull it all over as he would have liked.

A muffled cry sounded out in the house, and Billy startled. He jumped up from his chair and dashed into the direction of the cries. He opened the cellar door, switched on the light, and dashed down the steps. The cries, female, were loud down there. In the rear wall of the cellar was a blue door. Billy opened it and his mouth dropped open. Inside, a young red haired woman, duct taped to a chair which had fallen over on its side was crying out through a partially taped mouth.

"You've really made it hard on yourself there," Billy said. "Were you the thump I heard last night before we left for dinner falling over like this?"

Her eyes were filled with wild fright and stained with tears. Billy sat her chair upright and stooped in front of her, "Stay quiet, I have some news, good news." The woman sobbed while he spoke, "You need to calm down, I really want you to hear what I have to say."

"I'm giving all of this up," he said. "I am not killing any one else." Her sobbing slowed, "Someone has came into my life, and I feel healed on the inside. I want a good life for the two of us. I don't want to ruin things between us. I am sorry to say; I will still have to kill you."

Her sobbing rose to a terrified measure and a shrill cry echoed from the small exposed portion of her mouth. Billy reached and plastered the tape back to her face, approving of the silence. "I just want you to know I truly am sorry. I wish I could set you free."

Her next muffles would have been observable as someone attempting to desperately say, "You can! You can set me free! I won't say a thing to anyone if you let me go."

"I know, I know. You think that. But you would tell. It's just human nature. You couldn't bottle this in for the rest of your life. Not something like this; not what you've seen; not what you've been through. I know I couldn't."

Her dampened cries were most pleading. He said, "Once again, I am sorry. I really am. But I promise, I will make it quick and painless, and that's the most I can do now." He stood with his fist clamped to his hips, "I still don't know how or when I am going to dispose of all the bodies. That's going to be a problem. I will have to come up with something though. The important thing is that it stops here with you. I can't let my love find out. She can never know."

The red head behind the frayed tape began to laugh. Curiously, Billy had never seen this reaction before. Usually there was a heightened traumatic fright which could never fully be appreciated with words, but never laughter. He stooped closely in front of her again. "Did I say something funny?"

She laughed only harder.

He said, "Okay, don't you dare scream. It really is in your best interest that you don't. I am going to pull the tape back a bit, and you can tell me what's so funny."

She continued to giggle as he broke the tape away from her mouth, and she said, "She already knows. You idiot. You stupid idiot. She already knows, and she comes down here, and she has known for a long time."

Billy scoured, "You're lying. You're lying! Shut your mouth!"

She would not shut her mouth. She spoke with senseless regard to own safety now, insanely stabbing at words which honored her with a sense of power over the moment; a last ditch effort to fight back in any method possible. "She's sicker than you. She takes the bodies out of the wall and talks to them. I can hear what she says. She talks to them like they're alive. She's way sicker than you. Who do you think pulled the tape back from my mouth so you could hear me? She did it this morning. She wanted you to hear me. She wanted you to come down here." The frightened victim laughed again, "She's got something planned for you. She is way sicker than you ever thought to be. You better watch your back."

"You're just trying to turn me against her!" he screamed. "It won't be so quick and painless for you now."

The beautiful young female of whom was the topic of the sadistic conversation between Billy and his confined prey was now only a few steps, unknowing to Billy, behind him in the cellar. She gave Billy his third shake up of the morning when she said, "Billy?"

Sound vacated the cellar, even the young red head was perfectly quiet when Billy turned to face the lovely blond. With brutal accuracy, the red headed woman's words were now a plausibility over coming him with such weight he felt he might fall to his knees. All was injured beyond healing now, and he vehemently fought against it. "Is it true, did you know?"

Compassionately she said, "Billy…"

"No, no no no no no," Billy wringed his hair, "This can't happen, you can't know this."

The blond woman attempted to calm him down, "Billy," she said as if speaking to a very young child, and held her arms out to embrace him.

The red head laughed the hardest she had since before she had become ensnared, though the laugh was dosed maniacally.

"You can't know… this can't happen… this wasn't supposed to happen," Billy only backed away from the embrace.

On the blonde's final bid to ease Billy's tormented mind, just as she was uttering , Billy swung a clenched fist and nailed her squarely on the side of the jaw. She fell to the hard cement floor of the cellar and immediately blacked out from the fall.


	4. Chapter 4

A sharp pain on the right side of her head was the first thing the dazed young blond noticed when she became conscious. Her vision was somewhat murky, but clarified quickly. Her nose itched and she couldn't scratch it, her wrists were taped to the arms of a chair, as were her ankles taped to the legs. She twitched her nose, but displayed no signs of alarm. Billy was standing a yard or less from her yielding a large knife; a tool which appeared to be handy enough to skin an animal.

To her left was the red headed woman, still breathing and watching, and still bound to her chair in the same tried and true fashion. There was one difference, the blond was not gagged by the mouth with the expensive duct tape. Billy had learned early on, you get what you pay for, and cheap duct was not reliable. His second victim had almost worked her way free, and Billy swore to never skimp at costs again.

The blond said, "Billy, my nose itches."

Billy said, "Tough."

"Well, at least rub it . It's a bit unbearable." Billy rubbed her nose and eased her itch; she thanked him. She looked over at the red head and said, "Well, Billy, what a day. You get to do two women at the same time. I bet that's always been a fantasy."

"I didn't want this to happen. I don't know what else to do."

She arched her large lips downward, "I know baby. I know."

"How long have you known about all of this down here?"

"Billy, I knew what and who you were the day I met you."

Billy tilted his head back, never taking his eyes from her, and said, "That's not true."

She laughed, "You and I were meant to be, Billy. I've always known how this would turn out."

Billy had no Earthly idea why she would say such a thing, and he gave himself no time to think; he was purely reactionary now, "You wanted this? You wanted to die?"

She laughed again, "Billy, you aren't going to kill me. I know how all of this plays out."

"If you think I am going to set you free, you have another thing coming. I can't risk anyone knowing about this," and Billy's voice cracked under the strain of his broken heart, "Oh, I didn't want it to happen this way. I was going to give all of this up for you."

"Give it all up? How romantic. You really do love me."

"Yes…" and he braced himself for the answer to his question, "Do you really love me?"

"Of course I do, silly. Do you think I would be here, tied up in your basement if I didn't?"

Billy couldn't fight that logic, "I don't want to do what I have to do. But I have to. You do know that? Don't you know I have no choice now?"

Amazement underscores any emotion the red headed victim felt while watching this dark drama play out. Her sanity had been drained empty days ago while crying in the dark cellar behind the blue door. Billy had brought her food and water, just enough to survive, biding his time while he waited for that perfect inspiration to carry out his deed. Presently, he wished he had already finished the job with the red head, and somewhat she did also. What she was witnessing now defied all realms of humanity and submerged her into a surreal insanity she was certain she would never be capable of climbing out of. It was a mad man's comedy, and she wanted to laugh.

"Don't worry so much, Billy," said the beautiful blond. "You're not going to kill me."

"I wish that were true. But I have to."

"You won't," she said matter-of-factly.

Billy was quite agitated by her confidence. It reminded him of an argument they once had over a dress she wished to wear on an evening out. Billy had felt it was too revealing, and had stated she should just go out in her under garments. That one battle of the wills had lasted for over a day, and she had succumbed to his warrants. The stress he had felt dealing with her then was back now, hot and tempered.

A frustrated man commanding a canine to sit bore the same expression Billy carried now, "I have to. I don't have a choice."

"You won't, Billy. Want to know why?"

He was cursed if he let her answer now, but he rationalized he would be cursed every single day afterwards if he did not, "Why?"

"Because you can't."

"Oh," he scoffed, "I most certainly can."

"Give it a try then."

The words of the red head should have invoked a cautionary reflection for Billy, but his passions had too much momentum for anything so sensible. She had warned him to watch his back. Rhythm and routine were now Billy's master; he had practiced this drill all too many times with success. No element of fear jumped out at him; he was still under and in complete control.

He touched the blade's edge to assure of it's effectiveness, "It will be quick and painless. I promise."

There was a valued approach of doubt in the young blonde's responsive glare, and for the first time Billy hesitated, ever so briefly, and he brought the knife down to a level where it would serve to pass straight into her heart if he would give a quick thrust. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

The atmosphere of the cellar then shifted directly, as if a cold draft had taken breadth, or as if a dry static had permeated within; and it was uncomfortable and unnerving. Billy's attention was arrested by the difference, his routine interrupted. Some new beast was in the burrow, unrecognizable and hidden, powerful and compelling.

Five hauntingly glowing figures solidified from thin air, encircling Billy and the young blond. They were each visible only by the aura they casts, bluish like the glow of the moon. Billy soon recognized the ghostly beauties surrounding him. Each had been cut short of their Earthly life by his own hand and mummified in his cellar wall. He was certain their physical bodies would still be encased if the faux wall were to be slid back.

The red headed woman now struggled to free herself with a strength renewed. The expensive taping did its job, and she was still bound to the chair, but if fear could be harnessed as raw strength, she would have torn the chair to toothpicks.

The young blond gazed the ghosted women with bliss, "My butterflies."

Each spirit flew straight into Billy's body, and he fought for control over his own actions. The young blond smiled and said, "Don't try to fight it, Billy. They are just toying with you."

Billy turned the knife to himself and fell on it. The spirits then left his body and circled the spectacle of his demise. Billy rolled slowly to one side, the pain paralyzing him. A pool of blood expanded on the floor beneath him. He could not move because of the affliction; if he could have stopped his own breathing, he would have. He made small intermediate gasps, like a fish stuck in mud.

The young blond was now standing, free of her bondage. She said, "Do you know who I am, Billy?"

He shook his head, wincing in pain.

"I am Death. You might have called me the 'reaper' at some time in your life. I had no choice but to fall in love with you. We are of a similar kind."

The red head was hysterical, and the Death said to her, "Calm down dear, it isn't your time."

Death was now cloaked in black, hooded and hidden, and her voice was gritty and coarse, "I do love you, forever."


End file.
